


I'll use you as a focal point, so I don't lose sight of what I want

by isromanoff



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Civil War Team Iron Man, Fluff, How Do I Tag, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Not Canon Compliant, Not Spider-Man: Far From Home Compliant, Precious Peter Parker, Protective Peter Parker, Rated teen for swearing, Rogue Avengers, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony Stark-centric, angst if you squint, but this is from tony's point of view and he's mad at them, mostly steve, this not anti-team cap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-13
Updated: 2019-11-13
Packaged: 2021-01-30 03:49:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21421708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/isromanoff/pseuds/isromanoff
Summary: Surprisingly, Tony was having a good day, a very good one. He slept through the whole night, no nightmares, no insomnia. He had met with the kid at the end of the morning, they had Italian for lunch, they had tinkered in the lab in the afternoon. Now he just wanted to lie on the couch with his kid next to him and watch movies the whole night. Was that too much to ask for?Apparently yes.
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Tony Stark & Avengers Team
Comments: 17
Kudos: 736
Collections: Best Team Iron Man, Best Tony and Peter





	I'll use you as a focal point, so I don't lose sight of what I want

**Author's Note:**

> First of all, i want to thank the angel @sunflower-spideyy on tumblr for being my beta, i could not do this without you.  
This is my first time posting a fic from this fandom and on this site but i love irondad with all my heart so i decided to post this.  
The title of the fic is from the song I found by Ambur Run.  
Enjoy!

**tony: ** Hey, kid. I’m kinda busy today. There’s some Avengers shit I need to deal with. Since we can’t meet today, you can swing by the tower on Saturday.

**tony: ** If you want to.

**Underoos: ** so no compound this weekend?

**tony: ** Nope, aren’t you supposed to be in class?

**Underoos: ** I am

**tony: ** Then put your phone down and pay attention

**Underoos: ** since when do u care if I pay attention or not

**tony: ** I don’t.

**tony: ** Pay attention.

**Underoos: ** :p

\--

If anyone saw Tony Stark right now, they’d think he was a madman. He paced around the compound’s living room anxiously while he muttered the speech he had prepared to give Steve and the others – his old friends – as soon as they got out of the elevator and before they could say a word.

Of course, that didn’t happen. Tony turned from where his eyes were fixed in one of Peter’s hoodies that he left on the couch and never bothered to take home again (Tony didn’t know this, but Peter left it on purpose knowing that having a piece of him, the smell, the soft fabric, made Tony feel safer and happier) to the imponent figure of Steve Rogers stepping into the room.

Maybe he wasn’t that imponent. Maybe it was the beard. Maybe Tony was just afraid. Afraid Steve would betray him again. Afraid of the shield smashing his arc reactor.  _ His heart. _

“Tony.” He said, not too loud, not too low and approached the man standing in the middle of the living room, who grabbed the hoodie that rested on the couch and hugged it in front of his chest, like a shield.

No. Not a shield.  _ Never a shield.  _

A safety net.

Tony looked at the people who followed the man and couldn’t help but notice that Bucky wasn’t there. Maybe it was for the best.

_ He’s my friend. _

_ So was I. _

“Tony.” He repeated, more secure this time. Tony hated that, he hated how he was always so full of himself.

_ I am too. Maybe that’s why people hate me. That’s why Natasha left and came back on Steve’s side. Everyone leaves. _

_ No. Not everyone. _

He hugged the hoodie a little bit closer.

“Rogers.” He answers, and that’s it. His next words are stuck in his throat. The speech of rage he had prepared completely vanished and he had no one on his side. He looked at Natasha, one of the people he used to call a friend, a sister. He looked at Sam, who, at least, had the decency to look uncomfortable. He looked at Wanda, whom he had only wanted to protect. Lastly, he looked at Steve, who used to be one of his best friends. Until he slammed a shield – a shield is supposed to help people, Tony used to find that ironic, now he just thinks it’s sad – down his chest. “Your rooms are in the same place you left them,”  _ you left me, how could you?  _ “I hope you still know where that is, because I’m not showing you. If you have any questions, don’t ask me.”

And without sparing a second glance to them, he turned around and left.

Tony hadn’t let go of the hoodie the entire time and as soon as he was out of the living room, he brought it to his face, inhaling the scent of someone who truly loved him and trying to hold back the tears.

_ He’s my friend. _

_ So was I. _

\--

“Peter, you can’t put peanut butter on pizza.”

“But, why?!”

“Because it’s fucking disgusting!”

“And now you have to put one more dollar in the swear jar.” Peter grinned, and then,  _ the little bastard _ , grabbed the knife and wiped peanut butter over the  _ whole  _ pizza.

“That’s it. You’re grounded. You just lost your lab privileges. You will never breathe on an Iron Man suit again. DUM-E will miss you, I won’t. Get out of my tower, I’m calling May.”

“You can't ground me, besides, this is Pepper’s tower, not yours.” 

Peter, still with a shit-eating grin on his baby face, walked towards the couch and rested the pizza box on the coffee table, grabbing a slice first.

“Who told you such a thing? And please don’t eat that on my couch.”

“She did, she also said that the tower is only 12% yours.” His mouth was full of pizza, disgusting peanut butter pizza that he was supposed to share with Tony. “Too late, I’m eating it already.”

He opened his mouth to show that he was, in fact, eating it already. Tony shoved him a pillow and sat next to him, resting his legs on the table.

“Gross. Why are teenagers so gross?”

“I dunno. I guess it’s a part of us.”

Tony chuckled and rested an arm around the kid’s shoulders, pulling him close. Peter threw his legs on his mentor’s lap and finished his last slice of pizza.

“When did you become such a little shit? “

“When I started hanging out with you.”

“Fair. It’s your turn to pick the movie.”

“Wait, aren’t you going to eat?” Peter gave the empty pizza box a pitiful look, now ashamed that he ate the whole food.

“Knowing your metabolism and that you eat more than a football team I ordered some extra food. There are some cheeseburgers on the kitchen isle, but I don’t feel like getting up now.

“That’s probably because you’re old.” Peter said, grabbing the tv remote like he didn’t just call Tony Stark old. Tony just glared at him, hoping that the kid would get the message. Peter glanced at him before sighing and getting up. ”Fine, I’ll grab them.”

“Thanks kid, you’re an angel.”

He really was. 

“Yeah, yeah. Keep telling that to yourself.”

Peter came back seconds later with one cheeseburger in each hand. Tony’s jaw fell open.

“Did you bite one of my cheeseburgers?!” Peter handed him the cheeseburgers and nodded like it was not a big deal, and it really wasn’t, but Tony was having a good time for the first time in days, and when he was dramatic the kid smiled and when the kid smiled, he smiled.

Tony placed the food on the table in front of the couch and threw himself on top of the kid, his laugher quickly filled the tower with joy and brightness when Tony started tickling him. Because that’s what Peter did, he filled Tony’s and everybody’s life with happiness and Tony was so insanely grateful that he found the kid and allowed him to enter his life.

“Stark?” 

And then Steve Rogers entered the room and the light turned into darkness.

Tony used to see him as a good person, not a perfect one, but a good one, and then he betrayed him, he slammed a shield on his heart, and Tony met Peter. Peter was the only person who deserved the title of good, hell even perfect. Peter was the person everyone wanted to have as a partner, as a best friend, as a nephew, as a mentee, as a  _ son _ . He became a super-hero because he knew that his powers required a lot of responsibility. He wanted to help the little guy, but he also wanted to protect the world. And that made him good.

Peter Parker was a good person; Steve Rogers was not.

“Oh my god,” Peter said, falling off the couch and onto the floor when Tony suddenly stopped holding him.

“What the fuck are you guys doing here?!” He was mad, boy he was mad. 

Surprisingly, Tony was having a good day, a very good one. He slept through the whole night, no nightmares, no insomnia. He had met with the kid at the end of the morning, they had Italian for lunch, they had tinkered in the lab in the afternoon. Now he just wanted to lie on the couch with his kid next to him and watch movies the whole night. Was that too much to ask for?

Apparently yes.

The rogue avengers arrived the day before and Tony hadn’t seen them since. Although he had planned to spend the night at the compound on Friday, he just couldn’t stand being so close to those people, to his old teammates, his old friends. So, he decided to drive alone to the tower and disable all the ways the team had to communicate with him, after found himself on the verge of a panic attack. 

“We wanted to talk to you” Natasha said, her eyes slowly following Peter’s movements. She didn’t know who he was, and she didn’t like not knowing things. “Who’s the kid?”

“I’m Peter Pa-“

“It’s none of your business” Tony quickly interrupted him, he didn’t want Steve to know his kid, not when he knew what Steve could do.

All right, yeah, maybe that was a little selfish. He knew Steve only attacked when it was necessary, but he also knew that Steve had no limits.

“Listen, this really isn’t a good time. Why didn’t you just call or, you know, don’t ask me anything like I said. I’m sure Vision would be happy to answer any questions you have.”

Sam scoffed indignantly. “Yeah sure, you think we don’t know that you cut all the access we have to you?”

Tony brought a hand to his face and sniffed before walking to stand in front of Peter in a defensive position. He pointed an accusatory finger at the group.

“I cut all the communication because I really don’t want to have anything to do with you guys right now, mostly you.” With a shaky breath he looked at Steve. “After all you’ve done Cap, you really expect me to trust you enough to let you come back into my life, just like that?”

“No, I don’t, and I’m not here to ask for forgiveness either. I know what I did was the right thing.”

“Well congratulations Captain Rogers, you’re a prophet.”

All the heads in the room turned to Peter, who had somehow ended up standing at Tony’s side with an arm held up in his direction, like he was ready to protect him.

“You still think what you did was right, after everything that happened? Yeah, that’s right, I know everything, wanna know why? Because when you left, you took everyone with you. So guess who was left all by himself to cope after an extremely traumatic experience, when all his friends had abandoned him? He has to tell a sixteen-year-old kid everything in between nightmares that haunt him at night. But you know what? He doesn’t need you. Mister Stark doesn’t need any of you. He has Pepper, he has Happy, he has Rhodey and he has me, and we will always, and I mean always, be here for him. Which is exactly the contrary of what you did.”

Tony had never seen Peter talking with so much venom in his voice. He was angry, he was hurt, he was upset, and he made sure to put all that into words. Tony didn’t know if he was thankful or mad because the kid was being so careless. But then he looked at him, this kid, this wonderful kid, with eyes filled with tears and his body language that suggested he was only trying to protect the man and Tony knew he would go to the end of the universe for that kid. He was so grateful for having him in his life.

He smiled softly, not wanting to show emotion where the others could see him. He grasped Peter’s shoulder gently when he kept talking. Defending him.

“Buddy…” he whispered. He wouldn’t allow the Avengers to see this part of him, that was reserved for a very short list of people. “That’s enough, let’s go. They’re not worth our time.”

Peter hesitated, but seemed to give up because he said, “Fine, but I’m not leaving, they are.”

“You heard the kid, leave.”

“Tony, we just want to talk.” Natasha said, and Tony knew, way deep inside him that he also wanted to talk. They desperately needed to talk and figure things out.

“All right.” Nat smiled slightly and Peter groaned “We will, but not now. Not today. I’ve got better things to do.”

“Like what?” Sam asked, looking surprised that Tony Stark had better things to do than to argue with him.

Tony shrugged and smiled at the child now tucked under his arm. He would never forget the way Peter defended him. He loved him so much. 

“It’s none of your business.”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Come scream at me or just talk with me on my tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/tcny-stcrks


End file.
